Spaces of (Post-) Soviet Dissent in Russia

Join the Wilson Center's Kennan Institute for a talk on the historical context of protest activism in contemporary Russia.

Recent mass protest rallies in Russia are often analyzed in terms of their economic and political ramifications. This panel will instead consider the historical context of protest activism in contemporary Russia. Participants will examine how different contemporary political activists and artists perpetuate, deconstruct, or subvert both the official line as well as dissent traditions in contesting state monopoly over the public space.

The Kennan Institute’s Billington Fellow Dmitry Kozlov will consider the spatial dimension of public protests in the Soviet Union and Russia. He will be joined by professor Kevin Platt of the University of Pennsylvania, who will examine anti-state aesthetics in the post-modern politics, and Mikhail Nemtsev, who will discuss absurdist protest movements in Novosibirsk.